Painting the deck

April 28, 2013

Ok, ok... I am getting it.   When I want something done by someone other than myself, I should plan on it taking twice as long as I thought or was promised and as to the price,  I should just double that also.   After getting a very high recommendation from the person who sold me my boat and had his boat's deck painted by this person, I hired him to do my deck also.    Now, I know that the deck was way too much for me to handle and that I wouldn't have even invited anyone I know on the boat with the deck the way it was.   I will call this person Jim.    Jim's paint job, on the boat that I looked at, was eight years old and still looked like new.

Jim went to work on April 4th and he assured me that by the time we got back from our two week trip, the job would be finished (barring bad weather).   Mary and I flew off to Israel and I believed that I had won the jackpot for both getting to travel with my wife and also getting my deck painted while I was away.   

Now I have learned a long time ago not to pay a lot up front and to always hold back what I would need to finish the job.    We had agreed on a total price with materials before I hired Jim.

When we got back (no bad weather here in CA) the job was about half done and more materials (of course) needed to be purchased.
My boat looked like a big taco all wrapped up with tape and paper.   My marina neighbors were getting a bit nervous but assured me that Jim had not (yet) painted their boat with over-spray.   The guy on one side of me was kind of hoping that a good wind would blow a bunch of paint onto his boat as it really needed a paint job.    He had it planned how he would turn his boat in the slip so that both sides would get done.

Big taco... Wrapped!

I have to admit that the old flaky, cracked paint was disappearing and Jim was making everything look smooth if not shiny.    Someone told me that he was an artist and that you must not rush an artist.   Let me just say here that I am retired, with (except for traveling) pretty much unlimited time (unless I die first).   That saying, "What? Me Worry?" and Bob Marley's  "Don't worry, be happy!"  Ran through my head and I decided to just let the artist work.